4th of July Photoshoot - Part 1

Like I mentioned in the previous post, on the 4th Ava and I did a little photoshoot. Here are some more of my favorite photos from the little session. She actually enjoyed having her pictures made and we had a good time. Looking at these pictures, it is so hard to believe that she is almost 3 years old. Each day she becomes a little more independent and a little more hard-headed. She is a firecracker, that's for sure!

Happy 4th of July

Happy Fourth of July! Just a quick share of one of the pictures that I took of Ava during our 4th of July photo shoot earlier today. They are still downloading so I just picked a quick share and I will share more later.

I have so much fun on the 4th and remembering past Fourg of July's. This is Ava's 3rd one and here are a few reminders of the first two.

4th of July - 2008

4th of July - 2007

Hard to believe how much she has changed! Hope you all have a great 4th and God Bless America and the men and women who fight for our country and freedom!

A Visit to the Zoo

While Ava and I were visiting Aunt Bo (Nona) and Nanny in Indiana, the weather was miserably hot. It was so hot we barely left the house and I did not get my camera out at all with the exception of a short trip to the zoo. Even though we arrived at opening, the temp was so hot we only lasted a little over an hour. We barely skimmed the surface of what they had, much less got to enjoy ourselves. I did manage to get a few pictures of Ava who has talked about the zoo constantly since our return. Here are some of the things she has to say:

• When asked what animals she saw, these are usually listed: peacocks, zebras, a giraffe who was eating a tree, scarlet acaws (Macaws - she learned from Diego), Hippos taking a bath, birds, toucans, bats, spiders, snakes in the window and a snake on a rock, and turtles.




• The peacocks roam free at this zoo and Ava was very intrigued, especially by one who wanted to mate with a female. Ava would say, "I saw a boy peacock being mean to a girl. He was fighting with her like this." Then she proceeds to shake her booty and do some hilarious dance.

She has such a great memory and recalls so many little tidbits that I don't remember. It is funny to hear her elaborate on the different things she has seen. You never know what story she will tell you.

Goofing Around

I am just now getting around to posting these pictures from a couple of weeks ago. Ava was supposed to be in her room taking a nap, but I started to hear the faint sounds of an Indian coming from her room. Sure enough when I snuck up to the door I found her in this newborn hat knitted for her by Nana and marching around like an Indian. Of course as soon as she noticed me she stopped, but I let her stay up a few minutes longer while I took these funny pictures of her hamming it up in a newborn toboggan.

It's a ........ Cletus!

Boy! Due date 11/26/09 right on Thanksgiving Day. The ultrasound today went fine. The little guy was still a little small to get clear pictures of, but it was confirmed by the US technician and the doctor that this is definitely a boy. His heartbeat was strong at 148 beats a minute and everything looked good. He weighs 9 and 1/2 oz. The tech said it was hard to get very clear pictures of him because he is still so small and doesn't have body fat yet. She said at this stage they are still very skeletal because of just how tiny they are.

On the yucky side, I had my blood drawn today for the screening test that shows down syndrome and a few other genetic disorders. This was what came back with a false positive for Ava. So just pray for us that this doesn't come back high on us again. I would hate to go through all that mess again!

So here he is. Baby Boy Rogers. No name decided yet.

This first picture is of his manhood. The top arrow is his goober and the bottom arrow is his other man goods.

His hand is up by his face in this one. He kept trying to suck his thumb, but he was overshooting his mouth and hitting the top of his head.

Boy or Girl?

On Monday we go for an Ultrasound to check on the baby and hopefully determine if it is a little girl or little boy. Or as Bradley says, is it a Cletus or a Eunice? So I thought I would see if there is anyone out there still reading this blog and what their guess is.

So leave us a comment and let us know your guess.


Girl or Boy?

Hello Blog Readers.../Father's Day

Ava and I have been away for most of this week visiting family up in KY and IN. We are back home and I have downloaded pictures and I am excited to be posting some over the next week or so.

We left on Sunday (Father's Day) and abandoned Daddy on his day. We ate lunch together and spent the first part of the day together and then we headed up to KY passing through on our way to Indiana. We were able to spend some time with my dad on Father's Day at a church fellowship and Bible School Commencement. Ava enjoyed playing with Trayton and seeing people, but my goodness was it hot. After that we headed on up to IN which I will post about in a later post.

These are just some pictures of Bradley and Ava. You can see in one of the pictures she has drawn a picture of Daddy. She loves drawing people and does a relatively good job, especially considering her age. If you look closely you can see that he has eyebrows, legs, arms, eyes, a nose, and is wearing a hat (the big circle on top of his head).

So Happy Father's Day, Daddy. Ava and I love you and thank you for being such a good daddy and taking such good care of us! We love you and hope you didn't feel too abandoned when we left. We thought you would be happy to have us go away so you could watch baseball in peace!

This is what happens...

When your mother buys the wrong size pull-up. And when she makes you wear them even when you have wedgies....

One of my favorite books...

Ava has always loved books and lately she has been into reading a different book each night. She has so many books that their are many that we have read only once or maybe even not at all. The other night she picked out one of my favorites, "No, David!" by David Shannon. I bought this book back in college because I just found it so hilarious and the illustrations are so funny. By the way if you look at the cover, Bradley points out that Little David needs to go see a dentist! She loved it because David is doing all sorts of things he shouldn't and getting in trouble. Long story (well, not really since it is a picture book) short, David gets into ton of trouble but at the end, his Momma hugs him and says, "I love you." The best part for me is that he actually based it on a book he wrote as a child with the only words being "No, David." Since we read it the other night Ava has been reading it to herself and even doing the little narratives and questions I ask as we go along. Hilarious and totally cute. Here she is in my bed reading "No, David!" and wearing a newborn hat that Nana made for her before she was born (hence the tight fitting hat - more pictures of that to come later!). You can also note that once again we are only wearing a pull-up due to potty training!

Keeping her busy

When we got home from town yesterday, Ava was complaining about her tummy hurting. She had just eaten a big meal at the Chinese restaurant and I had no desire to sit around watching her rub her tummy so I decided to sidetrack her and take her mind off of the tummy pains. I remembered this pop-up dollhouse my mom had given her when she was just a newborn. I had put it in her closet until she was older and I thought it would be the perfect time to break it out. Sure enough it took her mind off of her tummy ache and has provided lots of distraction and play time. She has now started putting her big plastic little people in it and having little parties. She has developed a fascination with making her toys walk (Thanks Daddy!) and loves making them move around and walk through the house.

And I included this one because we seem to be doing so much "pants-less-ness" because of the potty training!

She...

• She loves to play hard and make tons of messes. Plus she hates to clean up!



• She loves The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Cinderella.



• She has a very active imagination.



• She wakes up and tells me she had a good sleep and what she dreamed about.



• She is too opinionated for her own good.

• She has developed a totally cheesy smile for the camera.



• She loves to eat peanut butter sandwiches with the crust cut off.



• She likes to dance and sing.

• She loves being outside and playing in the yard. That could be picking flowers, sliding, playing in the dirt, playing with sticks, etc...



• She hates laying down for naps, but feels so much better after she takes one.



• She thinks she is hilarious and will be caught saying, "Do you think I'm funny?" a million times a day.



• She loves Barbies and they have become an obsession and she has spent countless hours playing with my old ones.



• She is great at working puzzles.



• She is sometimes so exhausting and challenging, but I wouldn't trade her for anything!

(These photos taken while she was busy watching Daddy mow.)